Niềm tin của giáo viên về phương pháp giảng dạy theo đường hướng giao tiếp và hoạt động giảng dạy trên lớp

Trang 1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES    NGUYỄN THỊ THANH BÌNH TEACHERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT COMMUNIC

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

hoạt động giảng dạy trên lớp)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis Major: ELT Methodology 60.14.10

Hanoi, 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

(Niềm tin của giáo viên về phương pháp giảng dạy theo đường hướng giao tiếp và

hoạt động giảng dạy trên lớp) M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Major: ELT Methodology Major code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng

Hanoi, 2012

TABLE OF CONTENT

Declaration i

Acknowledgement ii

Abstract iii

Table of content iv

List of abbreviation terms vi

List of tables vii

INTRODUCTION 1

1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY 2

3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3

4 SCOPE AND SIGNIFICANGE OF THE STUDY 3

5 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 4

DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1 Beliefs 5

1.1.1 Definition of belief 5

1.1.2 Teachers’ beliefs 6

1.1.3 Teachers’ beliefs about language teaching 6

1.1.4 The relationship between beliefs and practices in language teaching 9

1.2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 10

1.2.1 What is CLT 10

1.2.2 The background to CLT 11

1.2.2.1 Traditional approach 12

1.2.2.2 Classic communicative language teaching 12

1.2.2.3 Current communicative language teaching 13

1.2.3 The characteristics of CLT 14

1.2.4 Teachers’ beliefs toward CLT 16

1.2.4.1 Correspondence between beliefs and practices 17

1.2.4.2 Discrepancy between beliefs and practices 17

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 20

2.1 Context of the study 20

2.2 Subjects 21

2.3 Data collection instruments 21

2.4 Data collection procedure 23

2.5.Data nalysis 24

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 26

3.1 Demographic characteristics of teachers studied 26

3.2 Results of research question 1 28

3.2.1 Findings from the questionnaire 28

3.2.2 Findings from the interview 30

3.3 Results of research question 2 32

3.3.1 Findings from the observation 32

3.3.2 Difficulties in applying CLT in the classroom 35

3.3.3 How to deal with the difficulties 36

3.4 Results of research question 3 36

CONCLUSION 40

1 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 40

2 LIMITATIONS 41

3 SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER STUDIES 42

REFERENCES 44 APPENDICES

Appendix 1 : Teachers’ beliefs questionnaire (in English)

Appendix 2 : Teachers’ beliefs questionnaire (in Vietnamese)

Appendix 3: A sample interview

List of abbreviation terms

GTM

CLT

Grammar Translation Method Communicative Language Teaching HUBT Hanoi University of Business and Technology

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

With regard to help learners to improve their English skills, linguist and language teachers have developed different teaching approaches and methods over the last centuries In Vietnam, there exist two teaching methods and approaches, namely Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Grammar Translation Method (GTM) However, the way teachers practice teaching in the classroom depends on the beliefs that they think is the best for their students In facts, it is undeniable that GTM is still the most widely-used and common English teaching approach applied

in most of educational institutions in Vietnam However, in modern foreign language teaching and learning, GTM shows quite a lot of shortcomings On the other hand, CLT is in favor and gets a lot of support as well as compliment It is considered the best and most appropriate approach to teach foreign or second language, thus, it is able to replace the traditional GTM CLT is well- supported from teachers and educators because of its benefits to learners such as emphasizing

on communicative competence, teaching grammar in both deductive and inductive ways, motivating learners by relaxing atmosphere and small group activities

Focusing on the teaching of CLT, this study explore teachers‟ beliefs, as the initial step towards understanding how to affect the process of schooling as well as understanding the values and beliefs of those who drive those process Teachers‟ beliefs are important concepts in understanding teachers‟ thought process, instructional practices, change and learning to teach It was, however, not until the 1970s that research on teaching emphasized the significance of teachers‟ beliefs , which reflect in their teaching practices According to Borg (2003:81), teachers are

“active, thinking decision makers who make instructional choices by drawing on

complex practically- oriented, personalized, and context- sensitive networks of knowledge, thought, and beliefs” He suggested that beliefs, by affecting the way in which we perceive reality, guide both our thoughts and behaviors In other words, teachers‟ beliefs greatly impact their instructional decisions in the classroom

At Ha Noi University of Business and Technology (HUBT), English is considered

as the most important subject in the curriculum because it helps students a lot in the future such as finding the job, communicating with foreigners, going abroad….Therefore, in order to improve learners‟ communicative competence, teachers had better apply CLT approach instead of GTM method Although some studies have investigated teachers‟ beliefs about CLT and classroom practices in Asian context (e.g Choi, 1999) and in Vietnam (e.g Pham, 2007), no research has been carried out, to my knowledge, about the impact of English language teachers‟ beliefs on practices with regard to CLT at HUBT

Studies on this topic draw on questionnaires,on classroom observation, interview,and the writers‟ teaching experiences

2 The aims of the study

Given the need for the importance of teachers‟ beliefs in teaching practice, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between teachers‟ stated beliefs and their teaching in the classroom in terms of CLT approach with reference

to 24 teachers at HUBT The study also finds out the factors that influence what these teachers think, believe and practice In addition, the results of the study recommend some implications for teacher development and teaching methods at HUBT and Vietnamese university English education

3 Research questions:

1 What are HUBT English teachers‟ beliefs about communicative language teaching?

2 How are their teachers‟ beliefs reflected in their practice in the classroom?

3 What are the factors affecting their beliefs?

4 Scope and significance of the study

This paper only concentrates on finding beliefs of the teachers at HUBT in teaching CLT Because the study explores teachers‟ beliefs in English department at HUBT, the results will not generalize to all teachers of English in Vietnam In addition, the researcher investigates communicative approach in the relation with traditional method

In teaching foreign language, the most significant goal is to help students develop their communicative competence Hence, CLT has been considered as an ideal teaching approach to many teachers and researchers In Vietnam, English teaching approach is mainly focus on traditional methods; as a result, students have shown low proficiency in speaking and listening They also have difficulties in communicating in English although they are able to master vocabulary, grammar and reading quite well Therefore, CLT is the best way to improve learners‟ communicative competence By investigating teachers‟ beliefs and classroom practices, this study explores how communicative language teaching has been implemented in HUBT context

5 Organization of the study:

This study is composed of three following parts:

Introduction presents the background, aims, research questions, the significance,

the scope, and the design of the study

Development is organized around three chapters as follows

Chapter 1- Theoretical background, conceptualizes the framework of the study through the discussion of teachers‟ beliefs and CLT

Chapter 2 - Methodology, presents the context, the methodology used in this study including the subject, the data collection instruments, data collection procedure, and data analysis

Chapter 3 – Findings and Discussions consists of a comprehensive analysis of the data and a discussion on the findings of this study

Conclusion offers a summary of the findings, recommendations, limitations, and

future directions for further study

DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Belief

1.1.1 The definitions of “Belief”

Belief is of great importance in teaching as well as in life They are involved in helping individuals make sense of the world, influencing how new information is perceived, and whether it is accepted or rejected Beliefs colour memories with their evaluation and judgment, and serve to frame our understanding of events In simple term, “beliefs”, based on the verb “believe”, which comes from two old English words: BE and LIFON BE meaning "life" (as in being) and LIFON meaning

"according to" Therefore, to believe, means to live according to what you believe Referring to the definition, “belief” is considered as “one which is part of a system

of ideas” (Richards et all: 84) Pajares (1992) asserted that belief systems serve as a personal guide by helping individuals define and understand the world and themselves The concept of beliefs is also defined by Borg (2001: 186) in the paper name “Teachers‟ beliefs” as : “a belief is a proposition which may be consciously

or unconsciously held, is evaluative in that it is accepted as true by the individual, and is therefore imbued with emotive commitment; further, it serves as a guide to thought and behavior” In the same article, Borg also mentioned four common features of beliefs, namely: (i) the truth element; (ii) the relationship between beliefs and behavior; (iii) conscious versus unconscious beliefs; and (iv) beliefs as value commitment In other words, beliefs in general are characterized in terms of knowledge, cognition, proposition, and idea which are accepted as true

1.1.2 Teachers’ beliefs

From the 1970s until now, teachers‟ beliefs have been paid attention to by many researchers (Lee, 1998; Borg, 2001; Richards, J C, Gallo P.B, &Renandya , W.A, 2001; Farrell & Lim , 2005; Altan, M.Z, 2006; Zheng, 2009; Kuzborska, 2011) While Borg (2001) referred the term teachers‟ beliefs simply as teachers‟ pedagogic beliefs, or those beliefs of relevance to an individual‟s teaching, Nespor (1987) and Zheng (2009) share the same idea with a more fully concept that teacher beliefs, as

a substructure of one‟s general belief system and coloured by former experience,

underlie planning, decision making, and behavior of teachers in the classroom In another research, Basturkmen, Loewen, & Ellis (2004: 244) pointed out that “the term beliefs is defined as statements teachers made about their ideas, thoughts, and knowledge that are expressed as evaluations of what „should be done‟, „should be the case‟, and „is preferable‟” whereas Mohamed (2006) believed that “a teachers‟ beliefs represent a complex, inter- related system of often tacitly held theories, values and assumptions that the teachers deems to be true, and which serve as cognitive filters that interpret new experiences and guide the teacher‟s thoughts and behavior”

One of the characteristics of teachers‟ beliefs is that it has a relationship with

knowledge However, in many studies on teachers‟ beliefs, it is difficult to distinguish between beliefs and knowledge Therefore, it is also impossible to distinguish whether teachers refer to their knowledge or beliefs when they plan and make decisions and act in classroom (Verloop et al (2001: 446)

1.1.3 Teachers’ beliefs about language teaching

It is obviously true that teachers‟ beliefs have great impact on their decisions and judgments in the classroom When mentioning the importance of teachers‟ beliefs

on language teaching, Pajares (1992) concluded that teachers‟ beliefs had a strong influence on the way they planned their lessons, on the decisions they made, and on their classroom teaching practices Choi (1999: 5) also agreed that teachers‟ beliefs about language teaching are one of the most important factors that can affect students‟ success in language learning Altan (2006: 45) suggested that teachers‟ beliefs influence their consciousness, teaching attitude, teaching methods and teaching policies, as a result, strongly influence teaching behavior and, finally, learners‟ development Kuzborska (2011: 102), however, shares a different approach when mentioning that teachers‟ beliefs influence their goals, procedures, materials, classroom interaction pattern, their role, their students, and the schools

they work in Although having different approaches to the importance of teachers‟ beliefs in language teaching, all above authors agree with the same view that by getting to investigate teachers‟ beliefs and principals they follow, it is easy to understand how they practice their work as well as how they change throughout the process of teaching In addition, it should be taken teachers‟ beliefs into consideration to help pre- service and in- service teachers develop their thinking and practices However, teachers‟ beliefs are not directly observable, so they are not easy to study (Johnson, 1994)

Where teachers‟ beliefs come from is also an important issue for researchers to consider Since Borg (2003: 81) defined teacher cognition as “unobservable cognitive dimension of teaching- what teachers know, believe, and think”, he wanted to use the term “cognition” to refer to “beliefs” In one article, he presented

a general idea about the nature of teacher cognition (teachers‟ beliefs) and its relationship with teacher learning and classroom practice as follow:

Figure 1 Teacher cognition, schooling, professional education, and classroom practice

Borg (1999, 2003) suggested that the educational background, professional experiences in the teachers‟ life, and teachers‟ personality strongly affect the teaching style However, Graves (2000) proposed teachers‟ beliefs come from their

learning experience, working experience and places, and their ongoing professional development In addition, Richardson (1996) believed that teachers‟ beliefs are mainly influenced by their own experiences (including personal experience, experience with schooling and instruction, and experience with formal knowledge) Kindsvatter, Willen, &Ishler (1988) asserted that teachers‟ beliefs are derived from

a number of different sources, namely: (a) their own experience as language learners, (b) their experience of what works best, (c) established practice, (d) personality factors, (e) educational based or research- based principles, and (f) principles derived from an approach or method After interviewing three experienced teachers about the sources of their beliefs, Chou (2008) agreed with Richard &Lockhard (1996) that teachers‟ beliefs come from a variety of sources such as from their own learning as learners, as teachers, experience of what works best, and principles

According to Mohamed (2006), past experience (either in learning or teaching) is not the only source from which beliefs may be derived Other sources may include established practices, teachers‟ personality factors, educational principles, research- based evidence, and principles derived from an approach or method

Overall, from my point of view, teachers‟ beliefs represent what they think is the best for students relating to their attitudes, expectation and personal experience

1.1.4 The relationship between beliefs and practices in language teaching

Beliefs play a crucial role in language teaching Fishbien and Ajzen (1975, as cited

in Chang, 2011: 21) suggested that behavior can be determined by intensions; intensions are the results of overall attitude, and attitudes are a function of salient

beliefs In other words, behavior is a result of belief Kuzborska (2011) &Tillema (2000: 102) shared the same viewpoint when asserting that teachers‟ beliefs are thought to have a profound impact on their classroom practices An understanding

of this relationship is important for the improvement of teachers‟ professional preparation and the successful implementation of new curricula Rios (1996) agreed that teachers‟ beliefs and practices interact and influence one another Richard & Lockhart (1994) mentioned that understanding teachers‟ beliefs is a better approach

to realizing how they typically teach Furthermore, Borg (2001: 186) proposes that belief „dispose‟ teachers‟ thought and behavior In other words, beliefs can lead to educational decisions and classroom practices, and through those beliefs, we can understand teachers and process of schooling

Communicative language teaching (thereafter CLT) starts from a theory of language

as communication It is also called Communicative Approach or Functional Approach and it was the British version of the movement in the early 1960s in reaction to the structuralism and behaviorism embodied in the audio-linguistics Communicative language teaching sets its goal as developing learners‟ communicative competence

1.2.1 What is CLT?

In an article named “Communicative Language Teaching Today”, the concept of

CLT is defined by Richard (2006: 2) as following:

CLT can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how leaners learn a language, the kinds of classroom activities that best facilities learning, and the roles of teachers and learners in the classroom

In the same article, the author emphasized that the goal of CLT is learners‟ communicative competence CLT is defined as “an approach to foreign or second

language teaching which emphasizes that the goal of language learning is communicative competence” (Richards et al., 1992: 65) According to Choi (1999), CLT refers to a language teaching methodology which focuses on developing learners‟ communicative competence in the target language Its aim to help learners not only to master linguistic forms and grammatical rules of a foreign language but also to be able to use the language appropriately in social interaction and cultural context

In order to understand more about CLT, Lewis & Cook indicated the differences between traditional and CLT approaches:

Contextualized language use Knowledge about language

Oral language Written language

Understanding Memorizing

Students active and happy Students working hard

Pair work and co- operation Exercises

Student initiative Teacher control

Table 1: "Oppositions" between traditional and communicative language teaching

by Lewis & Cook (2002: 151)

1.2.2 The background to CLT

CLT appeared when language teaching was looking for a change Although the traditional syllabus has some advantages, it failed to help learners improve their ability to use language to communicate

According to Richards (2006), the history has seen 3 phases in the trends of language teaching in the last 50 years

Phase 1: traditional approaches (up to the late 1960s)

Phase 2: classic communicative language teaching (1970s to 1990s)

Phase 3: current communicative language teaching (late 1990s to the present)

1.2.2.1 Phase 1: traditional approaches (up to the late 1960s)

The traditional approaches, also called The Grammar-Translation Method (GTM),

is a method of foreign or second language teaching which uses translation and grammar study as the main teaching and learning activities At one time, the GTM was called the Classical Method since it was first used in the teaching of the classical languages of Latin and Greek (Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics) In his study, Richards (2006) claimed that traditional approaches to language teaching gave priority to grammatical competence as the basis of language proficiency It was believed that language learning, in the traditional view, meant building up a large repertoire of sentences and grammatical patterns and learning to produce these accurately and quickly in the appropriate situation Techniques used in these methods included memorization

of dialogs, question- and – answer practice, situation drills, and various forms of guided speaking and writing practice Syllabuses during this period consisted of word lists and grammar lists, graded across level In a typical lesson according to this approach, a three- phase sequence, known as the P-P-P cycle, was often employed: Presentation, Practice, and Production

1.2.2.2 Phase 2: classic communicative language teaching (1970s to 1990s)

In the 1970s, since traditional language teaching approaches was out of favor and there was argued that language ability and communicative purposes were much more importance than grammatical competence, the notion of communicative competence was introduced Communicative language teaching created a great deal

of enthusiasm and excitement when it first appeared as a new approach to language teaching in the 1970s and 1980s Techniques that were implemented in this method

are learners learn to what to say and know how to say appropriately based on the situation, the participants, their roles and their intentions With regards to the syllabus, several new syllabus types were proposed by advocates of CLT including:

A skills-based syllabus: This focuses on the four skills of reading, writing, listening,

and speaking, and breaks each skill down into its component microskills

A functional syllabus: This is organized according to the functions the learner

should be able to carry out in English, such as expressing likes and dislikes,

offering and accepting apologies, introducing someone, and giving explanations Communicative competence is viewed as mastery of functions needed for communication across a wide range of situations Vocabulary and grammar are then chosen according to the functions being taught Functional syllabuses were often used as the basis for speaking and listening courses

1.2.2.3 Phase 3: Current communicative language teaching (late 1990s to the present)

Communicative language teaching today bases on the principles of classic communicative language teaching However, it is different from the old method in the way that it can be applied in flexible ways, depending on the teaching context, the age of the learners, their level, their learning goals, and so on

Jacobs and Farrell (2003, as cited in Richards, 2006) suggest that the CLT today has led to eight major changes in approaches to language teaching:

1 Learner autonomy: Giving learners greater choice over their own learning, both

in terms of the content of learning as well as processes they might employ The use

of small groups is one example of this, as well as the use of self-assessment

2 The social nature of learning: Learning is not an individual, private activity, but a

social one that depends upon interaction with others

3 Curricular integration: The connection between different strands of the

curriculum is emphasized, so that English is not seen as a stand-alone subject but is linked to other subjects in the curriculum Project work in language teaching also requires students to explore issues outside of the language classroom

4 Focus on meaning: Meaning is viewed as the driving force of learning

5 Diversity: Learners learn in different ways and have different strengths

6 Thinking skills: Language should serve as a means of developing higher-order

thinking skills, also known as critical and creative thinking In language teaching, this means that students do not learn language for its own sake but in order to develop and apply their thinking skills in situations that go beyond the language classroom

7 Alternative assessment: New forms of assessment are needed to replace

traditional multiple-choice and other items that test lower-order skills

8 Teachers as co-learners: The teacher is viewed as a facilitator who is constantly

trying out different alternatives, i.e., learning through doing

It is clear that there is no model of CLT which can be applied in all contexts; therefore, it would be better if educators could emerge different language teaching approaches in order to meet students‟ demand as well as get the best result In addition, a language syllabus today needs to include a systematic coverage of many different components of communicative competence, including language skills, content, grammar, vocabulary, and functions (Richards, 2006: 26)

2, emphasize in the process of communication

3, both accuracy and fluency should be taken into consideration in language teaching , but the aim is to build fluency

4, errors are considered natural and tolerable

5, the role of learners: negotiators between the self, the learning process and the object of learning (trying to make themselves understood and in understanding others within the classroom procedures and activities)

6, Teachers: co- communicators, analysts, counselor, and group process managers 7.CLT does not exclude grammar

The characteristics of CLT are also reflected by Li (1998):

1, a focus on communicative functions

2, a focus on meaningful tasks rather than on language per se

3, efforts to make tasks and language relevant to a target group of learners through

an analysis of genuine, realistic situations

4, the use of authentic, from – life materials

5, the use of group activities

6, the attempt to create a secure, nonthreatening atmosphere

In several previous studies, almost all of the authors agreed that the most obvious

characteristic of CLT is to develop “communicative competence” Brown (2007) wrote there is a focus on communicative competence and no focus on grammar competence while Larsen-Freeman (1986: 132) claimed that „„almost

everything that is done is done with a communicative intent‟‟ In addition, Chang (2011) asserted CLT emphasizes in the process of communication whereas

Li (1998) confirmed that the primary goal of CLT is a focus on communicative functions

Another characteristic of CLT is the introduction of authentic material ( Freeman, 1986; Nunan, 1990; Li,1998 ;Brown, 2007) It is considered desirable to

Larsen-give learners the opportunity to develop strategies for understanding language as it is actually used by native speakers (Canale and Swain, 1980)

With regard to accuracy and fluency, researchers had the same idea that although

both fluency and accuracy are seen as complimentary, fluency is more important (Brown, 2007; Chang, 2011) They suggested that both accuracy and fluency should be taken into consideration in language teaching, but the aim is to build fluency

From my point of view, characteristics of CLT can be summarized from previous

researchers as following:

1 Learner- centered approach

2 Emphasis on the process of communication

3 Fluency should be paid more attention than accuracy

4 CLT does not exclude grammar

5 The use of authentic, from – life materials

6 The attempt to create a secure, nonthreatening atmosphere

7 The use of group activities

1.2.4 Teachers’ beliefs toward CLT

Karava- Doukas (1996 as cited in Chang, 2011) indicated that the mismatch between the beliefs and practices may contribute to the neglect of examining teachers‟ attitudes before implementing any new approach

Chang‟s survey (2011) investigated 54 Taiwanese college English teachers about their attitudes and the reasons behind attitudes the teachers held toward CLT The findings indicated that the teachers held favorable attitudes toward principles and characteristics of CLT in their beliefs The results also demonstrate that CLT can make English teaching meaningful and interesting

1.2.4.1 Correspondence between beliefs and practices

After investigating three experienced teachers about their beliefs and their practices

in classroom, Chou (2008) concluded that despite difficulties they had within their contexts and students, they all tried to form their own models of CLT The reflection model of interpreting „theory into practice‟ in their own contexts is shown explicitly from the three cases All three teachers agreed that teachers should transfer theory into practice

1.2.4.2 Discrepancy between beliefs and practices

An example is provided by Chang& Huang (2001, as cited in Lai, 2005) who investigated the relationship between teachers‟ beliefs about Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and their teaching practices The study was conducted in Taiwan among 119 English teachers from Taipei public senior high schools The findings have shown that these teachers still adopted the more traditional teacher- centered and lecture- type approach in their classroom practices whereas they held positive beliefs toward CLT The reasons for this discrepancy are related to contextual factors such as large classes, inadequacy of school facilities and lack of opportunities to receive in- service training

In addition, in their survey, Farrell & Lim (2005) investigated and compared the beliefs and actual classroom practices of two experienced teachers of English language in a primary school in Singapore The findings suggested that teachers do indeed have a set of complex beliefs systems that are sometimes not reflected in their classroom practices for various complicated reasons, some directly related to context of teaching

Three dissertations made by Li (1997), Choi (1999) and Wang (2000) investigated teachers‟ beliefs and their classroom practice in applying CLT in China (by Li and Wang) and Korea (by Choi) All findings reveal the discrepancies between what they believe and how they practice In general, teachers hold positive beliefs about the concept of CLT They, however, have faced various challenges when implementing CLT in their classroom As a result, they all agreed that it is difficult

to overcome the problems and traditional classroom features are still very common Then, they suggested that there would be limited use of CLT in non-speaking English countries Moving more thoroughly to each dissertation, Choi (1999) in her dissertation showed that Korean EFL teachers supported the concepts of CLT; however, their teaching practices in classroom were still largely teacher- centered, teacher- dominated and drill- driven rather than learner- centered This discrepancy

is a result of many factors that can be summarized as following: large number of students in a class, few opportunities for in- service teacher training, little support for travelling to English- speaking countries, teachers‟ low level of spoken English proficiency and cultural knowledge of English, lack of authentic materials, lack of school facilities for using audio- visual materials, too little time to teach assigned textbook content, and a college entrance examination focused mainly on reading skills

Li (1997) and Wang (2000) investigated English teachers in China to know to what extent English teachers have employed the key innovative practices associated with CLT The findings indicated that those teachers have become more communicative-oriented However, the results indicate that traditional classroom features, such as teaching focused on the textbook or explaining new words in vocabulary lists, are still very common The findings also showed that it might not be the training respondents received but the type of students they taught that determined the extent

to which they applied innovative practices in their teaching

In Vietnam, Pham (2007) used case studies of three teachers (two senior teachers and one junior teacher) teaching at a university All three teachers espouse CLT and agreed that CLT is useful for learners in their future life and improve classroom atmosphere However, when it comes into practice, teachers encountered many challenges including systemic constrain (traditional examinations, large class size), cultural constraints (teachers and students‟ role, classroom relationship) and personal constraints (students‟ low motivation, teachers limited expertise in creating communicative activities)

1.2.5 Summary

The chapter so far discussed issues and aspects concerning to the topic of the study

It has discussed the concepts and ideas relating to belief and CLT In terms of belief, the definition of belief, teachers‟ beliefs, teachers‟ beliefs about language teaching and the relationship between beliefs and practices in language teaching are presented With regard to CLT, the definitions, the background of CLT, characteristics of CLT as well as teacher‟s beliefs toward CLT are focused

The following chapters will present the investigation, the findings and suggested solutions to the problems under the light of the above mentioned theories

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the context and the subject of the study, the data collection instruments, the data collection procedure, and the data analysis procedure will be presented

2.1 Context of the study

HUBT is a private university, which was founded by Professor Tran Phuong in

1996 It is located in Hoang Mai District, Hanoi, Vietnam HUBT has its reputation for good training in business and technology At this university, English is given the priority to learn and students have to spend much time learning English Because English is of great importance, good conditions for teaching and learning English are paid attention to Classroom with projectors, cassette and CD players, labs & multimedia library are always available for both teachers and students to help them perform their best In order to improve students‟ ability in learning English, the president of the university not only provides good facilities but also focuses on training teachers and looks for new ways to improve the quality of teaching and learning For instance, for the past 2 years, the school has applied DynEd, an online English-learning software so that they can practice their English more at home, and teachers can easily manage their study records via the Internet

The text books currently used to teach English to the students since 2005 are the series of Market-Leader (the books published by Longman (2004)) These books, which are chosen and implemented to teach their students from the first year to the third year of the course, cover four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing

At the middle of each semester, students are assessed based on a test of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills However, for the final exam, only reading and writing are tested because students answer the multiple choice questions with the computers

2.2 Subjects

There are 24 teachers of English at HUBT who participated in the study Of which, three teachers are males (12.5%) and the rest are females (87.5%) All of them are

official staff aged from 25 to 50 They have taught English for at least three years Therefore, they are able to give very authentic and reliable source of data

English teachers at HUBT mainly graduated from different universities in Vietnam but all of them majored in English Moreover, most of them are very young, enthusiastic, and dynamic Nevertheless, some of teachers do not have teaching experience since they were not trained to be teachers That is why for those teachers managing classrooms is difficult, especially when some pedagogical situations happen

2.3 Research method

In order to complete this study, qualitative method has been applied to collect the data The researcher chose this method because it can get detailed and reliable information All the results of the questionnaires, classroom observation, and interview after observation will be numbered as quantitative data

The instruments are questionnaires, classroom observations, and interviews after the observations All comments, remarks and recommendations given in the study were based on the data analysis

2.3.1 Questionnaires

The survey is divided into three parts

Part I: Background Information: This part is designed to gather the information

about the participants‟ information including gender, age, and number of years of teaching English

Part II: Questionnaire of HUBT English teachers‟ beliefs about the concept of

CLT As a basic for the completion of the study, the first questionnaire is carefully designed with ten questions to get the most effective investigation This questionnaire is modified from Choi (1999), (only 10 statements were extracted

from 18 statements (Appendix 1) including items 3, 5, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18), which is designed to clarify the teachers‟ beliefs about the concept of CLT in terms

of some characteristics of CLT as following:

 Learner- centered approach (question 2,4,6)

 Emphasis in the process of communication (question 1, 10)

 Fluency oriented consideration (question 8)

 Not exclusion of grammar (question 7)

 the use of authentic, from – life materials.(question 3)

 the attempt to create a secure, nonthreatening atmosphere.(question 9)

 the use of group activities (question 5)

Part III: Questionnaire of factors affecting teachers‟ beliefs and their teaching

practices in the class room This part consits of 10 items (from statement 11 to statement 20) Especially, there is one open question (statement 20) for the participant to raise their own ideas

In order to ensure that the participants can understand correctly the content of the questionnaire and the interview, they can choose paper written either in Vietnamese

or in English

The subjects were asked to read statements and decide if they: (5) Strongly agree; (4) Agree; (3) Neutral; (2) Disagree; (1) Strongly disagree Statements were followed by a 5- point Likert scale ranging “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” The completed questionnaires were shown in Appendix 1

2.3.2 Classroom Observation

When observing the class, the author did a lot of note taking as well as audio-taping

to ensure that the information collected was rich and triangulated To make the

students feel comfortable in the lessons, the author just sat at the last row and took part in five different lessons as a non-participant observer to have a naturalistic observation

2.3.3 Interviews

Informal interviews with teachers were implemented after observing class or during short break The researcher took as many notes as possible

2.4 Data collection procedures

The study will be done through the following steps

Firstly, 30 participants were asked to fill in the questionnaires delivered to each one with explanation in Vietnamese Participants could choose paper written either in Vietnamese or English After that, all the questionnaires were collected and analyzed

Next, the researcher spent time observing five classes (randomly 5 teachers answering the questionnaires) The process of teaching was observed and taken notes based on the characteristics of CLT After each lesson or during the breaks, participants were interviewed for further details

Finally, the results of classroom observation were compared with the favorable attitude collected from questionnaires

Thus, so far, this chapter has presented in detail the context, the subject, the two sets

of instruments, the procedure of collecting data, and data analysis The following chapter will deal with the findings and discussions

2.6 Limitations of the research:

The ideal target population for this study should be teachers in different schools and

in different parts of the country However, due to limited time and distance, the target participants were limited in 24 teachers of English at HUBT The results of the study are, therefore, not generalizable to all English teachers in Vietnam, thus

generalizability is limited to HUBT

In addition, this study used the survey questionnaire and structured interviews (with only 5 out of 24 teachers of English surveyed at HUBT) as instrument to collect data, so this may not always be accurate and reliable as well as cause some problems related to the validity of the research In order to make obtained result more reliable, different instruments for data collection should be applied Furthermore, only some suggested solutions have been proposed to deal with those difficulties of the teachers

Despite the unavoidable limitations, the researcher believes that this study is beneficial to the teaching of CLT to the students at Ha Noi University of Business and Technology

2.7 Summary

The second chapter has presented an overview of the research context, description

of the teachers, textbooks and the current situation of English teaching and learning atHUBT

Besides, the research method and the data collection procedure have also been discussed in this chapter

Having studied the above points, the author realized that there are some major problems faced by the teachers in their teaching CLT These problems will be discussed in chapter three of the study

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This study was a descriptive study to investigate the nature of communicative language teaching practices through teachers‟ beliefs and classroom practices in HUBT This chapter presents the results of the statistical analyses of the data collected from the survey questionnaires and classroom observation The results are presented in four sections: section one summarized the teachers‟ information and section two, three, and four reported the answer for three research questions respectively

3.1 Demographic characteristics of teachers studied

This section described the demographic characteristics of 24 teachers who responded to the survey, including gender, age and years of English teaching experience

3.1.1 Gender

Of the 24 teachers who took part in the study, only three teachers are male (accounting for 12.5 %) and the main respondents are female with 21 teachers (occupying 87.5 %)

Gender Frequency Percent

Table 2 showed the age of the participants In general, most of the English teachers

at HUBT are young; therefore, the average age of teachers who responded to the questionnaire was 30 years old, ranging from 21 to 40 years

Age Frequency Percent

Table 3: Age of teachers

3.1.3 Years of English Teaching Experience

The number of years teachers have taught English is reported in table 3 More than half of the teachers surveyed reported that they had 5 years of teaching English experience

Table 4: Years of English teaching experience of teachers

3.2 Results of research question 1: What are HUBT English teachers’ beliefs about communicative language teaching?

3.2.1 Findings from the questionnaire:

Results of teachers‟ beliefs will be presented in terms of seven characteristics of CLT mentioned in the chapter 2:

 Learner- centered approach (question 2,4,6)

 Emphasis in the process of communication (question 1, 10)

 Fluency oriented consideration (question 8)

 Not exclusion of grammar (question 7)

 The use of authentic, from – life materials.(question 3)

 The attempt to create a secure, nonthreatening atmosphere.(question 9)

 The use of group activities (question 5)

The following table showed the results of all questionnaire items (N= 24)

Characteristics of CLT Statements 5 4 3 2 1 Mean Learner-centered

approach

Statement 2 Statement 4 Statement 6

Overall mean score 4.10

Emphasize in the

process of

communication

Statement1 Statement 10

Overall mean score 4.01

Both accuracy and

Overall mean score 3.83

CLT does not exclude

grammar

Statement 7 8 14 2 0 0 4.25

Overall mean score 4.25

the use of authentic,

from – life materials

Statement 3 5 9 10 0 0 3.79

Overall mean score 3.79

the attempt to create a

secure, nonthreatening

atmosphere

Statement 9 5 11 5 3 0 3.75

Overall mean score 3.75

the use of group

activities

Statement 5 11 10 2 1 0 4.29

Overall mean score 4.29

Table 5: Descriptive statistics of questionnaire

Table 4 presented HUBT teachers‟ beliefs about communicative language teaching Teachers‟ beliefs about CLT were represented by the total of 10 items on a 5- point scale in part II of the questionnaire The higher the score, the more positive beliefs

of teachers held about CLT From the table, we can see that most of the teachers think the use of group activities as the most important factors in teaching CLT with the highest mean score 4.29 It is delighted that most of the teachers were fully

aware of the importance of the beliefs about CLT does not exclude grammar were

considered as the second important factors to contribute to the CLT class as mean score at 4.25 Next came to the characteristics of Learner-centered approach and emphasized in the process of communication with the mean scores at 4.10 and 4.01 respectively However, the teachers did not believe much in the attempt to create a secure, nonthreatening atmosphere and the use of authentic, from – life materials in their language teaching since the mean scores were at neutral of 3.75 and 3.79 In addition, the table also revealed that statement 4 as learner- centered activities are more important than teacher- centered activities because it got a lot of strong agreement as 15 out of 24 chose scale 5 In contrast, there were 3 teachers showed